A new SMART server in Russia

SMART Community Forum
1

Hi everyone.
My name is Misha. I am going to install a new SMART server in Russia to run SMART on PAs here and use all the advantages of SMART Connect.
Russian PAs are not allowed to use servers physically located abroad Russia by federal law. So why am I doing that - we cannot use the existing servers.
The problem is - I am not an IT-specialist, nor familiar with server installation.
Is there anyone here who could help me?

2

The first step - I shoud rent a VPS/VDS server in Russia.
The minimal configuration as I know is following:
2 CPU
16 Gb RAM
OS Ubuntu
5 Gb SSD

The current questions are:

  1. I am going to choose OS Ubuntu, because Windows servers are more expensive (require a licence). What version is better?

  2. They offer pre-installed software, like ISPmanager or something like that. Do I need that?

  3. Most plans include “Number of IPv4: 1 dedicated address per server”. Is that ok?

  4. Some plans contain something like “IP ADDRESS LIMIT: 4 addresses”. Is that ok? How much do I need for the SMART? What does it influence?

  5. For one plan “Full SSH access” was indicated. Do I need that?

Thanks in advance!

3

Hi,
I hope I can answer most of your questions:

  1. Use Ubuntu as OS. It’s free and you get a secure and stable operating system out of the box.
  2. Just use a plain Ubuntu server installation without any graphical interface.
  3. For running a SMART Connect server you only need one public IP address
  4. I’m not sure what the meaning of this limitation.
  5. You definitely need full SSH access to setup and manage your server.

In addition:
2 CPUs with 16 GB RAM is more than enough to host a SMART Connect server. But only 5GB SSD (harddisk) is very small. Remember that SMART Connect stores a copy of all your patrol data, observations, maps and pictures I suggest to look for a plan that has at least 100GB hard disk available.
SSD storage might speed up your system but from my experience with SMART Connect the effect is minimal.

Kindly

Oliver

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4

Dear Oliver,
Thanks a lot for your answer!

How much RAM would be good in this case?

Well, I will check the offers to rent VPS/VDS. I would ask you to check it, If you can, before I pay… Could you?

5

Additional question about Ubuntu version: should I use the latest LTS release (like 22.04) or what do you recommend?

6

Hi Mikhail,
8 to 16GB are more than enough for most of the installations.
I tested most of the installation with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, but I think 22.04 LTS will be ok too.

Oliver

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